Saturday, December 27, 2008

If you're tempted to skip desserts or meals with pie crusts or biscuits because of the work involved in hand-making these items, try this tip. Instead of cutting in the butter, melt it and mix it in instead.

Pie crusts and biscuits made this way won't be as flaky as if you cut in the butter the traditional way, but they are definitely acceptable for a usual weeknight dinner or dessert. And of course, making them from scratch is much healthier than buying the chemical-laden convenience options in the grocery store.

And a tip on pie crusts wouldn't be complete without a reminder to double, triple or even quadruple your pie crust recipe whenever you make it. Even if you don't have time to roll out the pastry, you can always store it in a ball in the freezer to pull out at your convenience.

The recipe I use calls for only butter (no trans-fats) & is very simple. It is:

I like to make the pastry a little on the wet side so that it can soak in more flour when I roll it out without becoming too tough.

If you have a large-capacity food processor, you can use cold butter and let your machine cut it in for you. Just cut the butter into chunks an inch or so in size, put them in your processor with the flour & salt, and pulse until your mixture looks like tiny crumbs. Add the water slowly, tablespoon by tablespoon, until it forms a dough ball. You then roll out as usual. This method is so easy, you can make crust or biscuit dough in under 5 minutes, almost as long as it takes to get one of those biscuit roll packages to "pop!"

This recipe is great for those of us who know we should be eating something higher in protein first thing in the morning, but can't get past the carb cravings when we wake up.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup flour, any kind, gluten-free also works well1/2 tsp. salt1 cup cottage cheese2-4 eggs (I use 2 because I don't like too strong an egg taste, but you can use up to 4)1/2 cup milk or water1/4 cup oil or melted butter1 tsp. vanilla

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Now that fall is blending into winter, it's definitely time to cook up any of those pumpkins we still have sitting around. We had two gigantic pumpkins this year. Due to their size, I procrastinated on cooking one of them for so long that it molded on the inside before I got to it. I realized, huge pumpkins are extremely intimidating! The logistics of getting it from doorstep to freezer aren't obvious for most of us.

So here is a tip for getting those plus-size pumpkins cooked up quickly:

• Set the pumpkin up outside (porch, sidewalk, front lawn) on the lid of a large plastic tote.

• Using the largest, sharpest knife available, cut the pumpkin into pieces approximately a foot long on each side. My husband used a machete for the job. A meat cleaver might work well.

• Don't worry about scraping out the seeds -- they are much easier to remove after the pumpkin is cooked.

• In your oven, set a baking dish with an inch or so of water at the very bottom. This will catch any pumpkin juices that fall plus give moisture to your oven.

• Put the pumpkin pieces straight onto the oven racks, skin side down of course, and bake for a couple hours at 325 until very soft. When you start to strongly smell them, they are probably done. Turn off the oven until they cool. (We left ours in overnight after turning off the oven & they were fine.)

• Now you can easily scrape off the seeds & separate the skin from the flesh. Load into plastic bags, label & freeze. Voila! Pumpkin pies, muffins & soup all winter long.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

As you might know, this blog is designed to provide recipes that require 10 minutes or less of hands-on time, but do not use any processed convenience foods. We have significant reactions to food chemicals in our family, so while I often want to make quick meals, I can't sacrifice food quality to do so.

Sometimes this means I spend more money to buy "organic" convenience items. For example, every now & then, I'll pickup a box of organic chicken broth to have on hand or an organic cream of whatever soup to use in casseroles and such. Usually, though, it means I prep some things ahead of time just to have on hand for quick dinners. Garlic is one of those items.

I've never found a garlic powder that doesn't cause a reaction, so we use only fresh garlic around here. But fresh garlic can often be a pain. There are times you want to flavor something raw, and raw garlic has too much heat. Or, there are times you want to fry on high heat, which results in little burnt garlic nuggets throughout the food. My solution?

I pre-roast my garlic.

It's so simple & useful that I wanted to share this tip.

Take your whole garlic clove, skin-on. Don't bother separating each little clove, just stick the whole thing in the oven or toaster oven. Bake it on anything between 200 and 425. Leave it in there until the garlic is soft. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

I often stick the roasted cloves in my garlic press to flavor different dishes at the last minute. This way, if they are raw, the garlic adds flavor without heat. And I don't have to deal with little burnt garlic nuggets anymore.

Next time you bake something, try it! Just throw in a whole garlic clove right alongside your dish & see what you end up using it for.

Wow, time flies. My last post was in March? What happened? Well...pregnancy, that's what. As much as I wanted nutritious supper in 10 minutes or less hands-on time, my stomach wasn't feeling very creative.

But, here's a new one thanks to a wonderful homeschooling mom friend who also happens to facilitate the delivery of our real milk lifeline each week.

Pour a generous amount of oil in a frying pan & turn on medium heat. Wrap 2-3 Tbls. of vegetable mixture in each egg roll wrapper, seal, & place in hot oil. See back of egg roll wrapper package for instructions on how to fold the wrapper. (Be sure to moisten the last flap you fold to attach the rolls together.) Flip egg rolls when they are brown & crispy on one side; fry the other side until brown & crispy. In medium-hot oil, each side will take 3-4 minutes. (7 minutes)

Put on a plate, sprinkles with salt & serve with a dipping sauce, if desired.

Caroline has told me that her mom used to serve these when she was growing up. They were never part of grandma's dinner repertoire, so I am loving them! We needed something different. Plus, I've always loved egg rolls but will never allow myself to eat them in the Chinese restaurant because of the MSG content.

Drain raisins after soaking but reserve soak water. Add 1/4 cup soak water to all other ingredients (including raisins) in a food processor or blender. Blend until smooth. Add more of the soak water if needed to achieve desired consistency.

Monday, March 17, 2008

A beef recipe? From me? Yep! I was lucky enough to pick up some grass-fed, grass-finished, free-range local beef last week & I've been thoroughly enjoying it. Check out this super-quick & super-easy stroganoff recipe:

Ingredients

Cooked beef (I cooked mine by dumping the plain steaks in the crockpot set on low for nine hours. 2 minutes hands-on)Juice from the cooked beef, or canned beef brothFlour to thickenButtermilk or sour cream or plain yogurt + salt for flavorEgg noodles

Instructions

Put on egg noodles to boil until tender. (2 minutes)

Put juice and a little buttermilk or sour cream in a saucepan set on high & quickly stir in flour, a TBLS. at a time, until it boils & thickens to your liking. You want just enough buttermilk or sour cream to lighten the broth to a medium brown color -- no more. (5 minutes)

• I am not afraid of fats. I spend money on high-quality fats, even if I must sacrifice other parts of my food budget. I mostly use butter, olive oil, coconut oil, and rendered beef tallow from our freezer beef.

• I try to eat as low sugar as I can, but I never use artificial sweeteners, even stevia.

• I eat meat and dairy, but I seek out and try many recipes that are meat and dairy free.